Soul 4 Sale
by NoviceCreed
Summary: Altair and Malik are left behind on their hunting after Kadar, Malik's brother passed away. His death caused a huge crack in Altair and Malik's friendship. But are they just friends, and what will Malik do when he wakes up with two arms and his brother alive? Supernatural!AU Warning: AltMal, Altair/Malik BoyxBoy yaoi Rated M for later chapters. Collab story.
1. Prologue

Prolouge

_He urged his legs to go faster as he ran after his brother, away from the threat chasing after them._

_The cold night air burned in his throat and lungs but there was no time for stopping._

_He dared a quick glance back and in his surprise, their pursuers were nowhere to be seen._

_Turning around completely he slowed down a bit, trying to focus his vision among the dark woods._

_As he waited for any sign of their pursuers, his pulse started to drop to a somewhat normal rate again._

_Turning around again, he started to run after his brother, not knowing that his brother had not noticed his pause._

_Some minutes later he was completely lost._

_He cursed his own stupidity as his eyes darted back and forth between the dark woods._

_The darkness made him trip several times and his elbow and knee were now bruised quite badly._

_At least it wasn't that windy._

_He only had his small handgun with him, since he dropped his machete when they were discovered._

_Suddenly he heard a twig break to his left. Quickly he spun around, pointing the gun out in the dark, pulse beating uncomfortably hard._

_His instinct told him to run, and with a sprint he started to run down the way he had come._

_Something sharp clawed at his side but he didn't dare to stop checking, but the warm liquid on his skin told him enough._

_An angry snarl to his right was the only warning he got before the hard ground slammed onto his back, dropping his gun._

_He tried to gasp, scream, anything but his lungs were not intending on cooperating._

_The pain in his side weren't making any of it easier and he only managed a pathetic whimper._

_The shadow above him gave out a mocking laugh as it saw the fear in it's preys eyes and swiftly lashed out, creating a long gash at the side of it's victim's face._

_Blood started to flow freely._

_A gust of wind and rustling leaves could be heard as two more shadowy figures quickly passed by, searching for their second prey._

_The shadow above him leaned closer and whispered _"You're all gonna die."

_He didn't know if he was dead or unconscious. His eyelids felt too heavy to open up even just a little, and his body hurt everywhere. He could hear footsteps approach him fast, and he wanted to turn away, to curl in on himself. He felt exposed since he couldn't see if it was his brother or the enemy coming for him, but when soft fingers gently brushed over him he guessed it was either his brother or Altair._

_It felt like he was floating, the sound of the world sounded like a static radio. It was distant, and he could hardly make anything out of it. _

_He could see lights flash behind his eyelids, an ambulance. Now he knew why he felt like he was floating. When he came to think of it, the position he was laying in had changed. Which mean someone had lifted him up on a stretcher, since he was unable to move even an inch on his own. He relaxed, not that he had the ability to tense his muscles, but he blacked out._

_The last thing he was aware of was that he was in a hospital. He could smell the chemical scent of that hospital cleanliness. He could hardly smell the sickening metal smell of his blood anymore, but it was still lingering there. He was probably going through a surgery by now._

_He didn't know what time it was, time didn't seem to exist to him and it didn't bother him too much. He felt so tired, all he wanted to do was rest, to forget his aching body and open wounds. Nothing seemed to matter anymore._

_The outstretched and distorted sound from the EKG was the last thing he ever heard before the world went black and cold._

"Kadar Al-Sayf, time of death 04:52 AM September 28th"


	2. Chapter 1

Two years has passed since Malik's younger brother Kadar passed away in the vampire hunt. Malik and Altair still hunted, and lived together, but their friendship took a sharp twist after the incidence. Malik was riding shotgun in Altair's 1970 Chevelle 454 SS, and his mood was worse than usual. Not only did Malik miss his daily cup of morning coffee, he needed his caffeine, but he also received the news that they were going on an emergency vampire nest hunt.

Malik wondered if Altair even knew what date it was, and what that date even meant to him. Today was September 28th, the 2 year anniversary of his younger brother's death. Altair was playing a song by Linkin Park, but Malik didn't feel like losing this argument, so Malik smashed the on/off button of the CD player and frowned.

Altair sighed, he didn't know how to handle Malik when he was like this, which was basically almost all the time, the only exception was when Malik, very rarely was in a good mood. He rolled his eyes, and kept his eyes on the road, his grip on the wheel tightening.

"What is bothering you?" Altair asked, trying to keep himself calm, but he could feel the upcoming of Malik's rage like the feeling of a storm coming. Malik had always been a bit bitter, but the 2 years without his brother had really bought out the worse in him.

"What is bothering me? Oh, I'm glad you asked Altair." Malik said now turning to look at the driver, his voice cold and sounding calm. Altair knew that Malik was far from calm. "Do I need to remind you what date it is?" Malik said again, voice still icy and calm, but Altair could hear the slight shake in it.

"Yeah." Altair said, his knuckles turning white on the wheel from how tight he was gripping it, though Malik didn't seem to notice. "Yeah? Do you even care?" Malik shouted throwing up his hands in frustration. Altair bit his lip, almost hard enough to draw blood. "People are dying Malik." He almost whispered, he didn't want to go vampire hunting either, the memories from the last vampire nest hunt was still hanging in the air, and the loss was still mourned. He was also scared, which was probably something Malik wouldn't understand.

"You understand very well why I don't want to do this." Malik spit out through clenched teeth, his own fists clenched in his lap, looking out the window. "I'll call Desmond, but I can't promise anything." Altair muttered. He had to give up, but if Desmond couldn't take the job, then he would have to force Malik to go, which he didn't want to.

Malik looked at Altair, took in the sight of him, which he hadn't done since before the death of Kadar. Altair looked tense, where he was sitting, and knuckles white on the wheel, that's when he noticed Altair's hood was up, which almost had all the time the last 2 years, but Malik could almost feel that Altair was biting his lip.

He leaned back in the seat, exhaling slowly and closed his eyes. He didn't get much sleep last night.

"Thank you."

Altair almost stopped the car; he threw a quick glance at Malik but had to keep his eyes on the road.

"Malik what…" But Malik was already snoozing in his seat.


	3. Chapter 2

Malik awoke by Altair gently shaking his shoulder.

He flinched before realizing where he was.

"What?" he asked, a bit sourly at being woken and the fact that Altair was still looking at him.

"I thought we'd get something to eat" Altair replied, before awkwardly retracting his hand.

Looking out the window, Malik saw they had stopped in a fairly small town, and the car was parked conveniently beside yet another fast food place.

Sighing, Malik got out of the car, not waiting for Altair as he stepped inside the food place.

"Here y go, have a nice meal", the pretty blonde said with a smile as she put their plates down.

Altair politely smiled back, thanking her.

Malik knew very well it was a fake smile, but it still annoyed him to a certain degree, making his permanent frown deepen slightly.

Chewing on a fry, Altair looked up and noticed Malik's glare.

"What…?"

"Nothing" Malik looked down and started to eat his food.

Mentally shrugging, Altair looked up and around the place.

There were a couple of "tough looking" youths in one corner, probably 16 to 19 years old, chattering about this and that.

A couple of tourists discussed eagerly over a map.

Absent mindly eating, he looked over to the counter and he noticed the blonde waitress that had taken their order and given them their food, was casting glances at him, eye lashes fluttering now and then.

Hastily he looked down again.

The scraping of furniture could be heard as the waitress arranged chairs as she moved closer to the table that the two males were occupying. Malik also looked up as the sound came closer.

Conveniently, she paused by the table beside theirs, and started to wipe it of, even if it looked perfectly clean, according to what Altair's eyes could see.

Malik just ignored her and continued eating, like he did with most people these days.

Altair tried to, but it was hard to concentrate as the female started to hum on some kind of melody.

He threw another glance and she winked back at him. Slightly confused and uncomfortable, he gave a small smile, before looking away again, and for the second time, found Malik looking at him.

Altair raised his eyebrows in a silent _"What?"_

Malik gave him a look that said _"Really? Are you serious?"_

Altair looked confused. _"What do you mean?"_

Malik just shook his head. "Are you done?" He asked flatly.

"Uh… yeah"

Malik refused to let Altair pay and as soon as they were done, they went back to the car.

Malik slammed the door shut with more force than necessary earning a couple of strange looks from the other people on the street.

"What's up with you?" Altair casually asked as he got into the car.

"Nothing." Malik answered bluntly, looking out the car window.

"You sure…?"

"Drive, Ibn-La'Ahad"

Altair silently started the engine who welcomed them back with a roar, before driving off.


	4. Chapter 3

Malik and Altair reached a motel that looked welcoming enough to sleep in and Malik checked in as Altair carried their bags to their room. When he had put all of the things down, he sat down in one of the torn small couches and sighed. Malik was in a bad mood, that was for sure, _but really_ Altair thought grimly _when isn't he?_ He closed his eyes a moment, it has been so long since he had seen the other one smile, and when he came to think of it, it had been a long time since he smiled either.

When Malik arrived, Altair was snoozing of in the couch; it would look sweet if Altair wasn't looking so worn out. Malik sighed annoyed, and put down his cup of coffee on the small and unclean glass table with a silent clink. He was gone for minutes and Altair is already snoozing of, but it was one of the few times Malik could actually study him. He was too busy ignoring him as much as possible when he was awake, and Malik didn't even know why anymore. He guessed it had become some sort of routine in his daily life.

Malik sighed again and sat on the other small torn couch that was opposite from where Altair slept silently. Not even sleeping, did Altair seem at peace, there always seemed to be this unease in him, and a tension in his shoulders. Even asleep, Malik could see the trace of alertness. It was common for hunters he knew, but on Altair it just looked so _odd_. Back when Kadar was still with them, Malik usually had to hustle him out of bed or Kadar would snatch his quilt. Malik guessed it was his own fault, for the hurtful things he'd said to him in the past. He missed the old times just as much as he missed Kadar, back then it had sometimes felt like Kadar was in the way for him when he wanted to spend time with Altair alone, or talk to him, but who would have though their life without Kadar would create this iceberg between them? Malik sighed and decided to let Altair rest, his head was now resting on his shoulder and he made silent shallow breaths with a few snores. _Novice _was the first word that crossed Malik's mind. Altair seemed peaceful enough, not that he would need to be watched over anyway, Malik decided to do something more productive than stare at the sleeping moron, so he went over to his bags and unpacked.

Altair knew he was asleep, but that didn't stop the dream from feeling real. Or more like a memory, a memory of something he wishes he could just leave behind. He remembered after the hunt accident, Malik being in a state of shock. How he'd just been sitting in his bed, not moving, hardly eating or drinking and not talking. Altair had been sitting there by his side, hood up. Malik hadn't looked at him; he probably hadn't noticed he even was there. _Did he care?_ Altair had though silently _does he wish that it was me, and not his brother that had died? _Altair remembered that he had cried, from time to time, while he was sitting there with Malik, biting his lip hard enough to draw blood. Then after a week had passed, Malik finally spoke. Malik had turned to Altair, rage being an underestimation of the look on the tanned man's face. "_I hate you."_ He had said, with so much venom in his voice, and it had stung Altair hard. Malik blamed him, but Altair could understand why. It had all happened under Altair's responsibility. It had been his responsibility to keep watch, and if he had heard that god damn vampire sneak up behind him with a baseball bat, had not been struck on the back of his head, had not passed out, Kadar would have been alive.

Malik noticed that Altair was making strange noises in his sleep; he was not sitting on his bed with his cup of coffee, and was sipping on the hot bitter liquid uneasily. Altair was making faces in his sleep again, and Malik tried not to care, but it actually tore him apart a little on the inside, to see him like that. Altair was supposed to be arrogant and proud, which he was most of his awake time, and not vulnerable and asleep in front of him. Malik didn't have a memory of Altair ever having trouble sleeping before, but actually, he hadn't taken big notice of him when they went to sleep at night. _I'm asleep then for god's sake_ he told himself mentally and tried to push away the guilt, something told him that this was not the first nightmare Altair has had in a very long time. He went up and walked over the room to wake him up, maybe talk to him, but then Altair's phone was buzzing.

Altair awoke with a start and pulled the phone out of his pocket, aware that Malik was watching him closely. "Hello?" Altair said his voice gruff from sleep and he dragged a hand down the side of his face. "Desmond, were you able to pass by the vampire nest?" Altair asked, then stopped just as he was about to put his hand down in his lap. He froze like that for a while and Malik raised an eyebrow, something felt wrong. "I see…" Altair let out after a long pause "Goodbye" He said and put away his phone, and put his face in his hands. "Are you-"Malik started but could not finish his sentence before Altair interrupted "Desmond and Shaun are not able to take the vampire nest hunt" He said, and looked up and met Malik's eyes. Malik could feel his face flush warm from frustration. "But-""I'm sorry Malik, I tried what I could." Altair said and stood up from the couch. "We're staying the night anyway, since we've checked in." He walked past Malik and crossed the room as he spoke. "I'm taking a shower" "Wait there is-"Altair slammed the door behind him to the bathroom and locked the door. "-I'd like to ask you about…" Malik said and groaned in frustration as he sat down on the couch where Altair moments ago was sleeping on and drank the rest of his coffee.


	5. Chapter 4

Altair gripped the steering wheel as he started straight ahead, going a bit faster, wanting to get to the nest and finis things quickly.

He had really hoped for Desmond to be able to take this hunt, but he did not blame his cousin. Desmond was a busy man too, after all.

He didn't want to put Malik trough this again. Even though their Vampire hunts had decreased notably since Kadar's passing, but every time one appeared, Malik's mood could turn sourer than five lemonades, depending on witch type of vampire hunt it was.

And this was a nest clearing, so Altair prepared for the worst.

Casting a quick glance at Altair, Malik could see the other chewing on his lip, even though his golden eyes were neutral.

They hadn't really exchanged any words since Altair came out of the shower. Just simple questions like whom would check out, witch Altair quickly decided he would do (to save Malik from the strange looks he'd often get since his amputation), escaping the room as if expecting Malik to throw a fit.

The only thing the younger male was going to have a fit about was if Altair didn't stop acting like Malik was going to punch him.

Looking out of the window, Malik let out a sigh, watching the blurry landscape fly past and soon he was snoozing in his seat.

"We're here" Altair said while Malik rubbed his eyes as he woke up. Looking up, he saw the old shack the vampires supposedly would've nested in.

They were on a half abandoned forest road, not too far from civilization though.

"They should be sleeping now… The clock's almost 12PM" Altair said.

"There's not much of a bright weather though…" Malik muttered in reply and stepped out of the car and opened the trunk to get his machete.

Altair followed suit, flicking a spare lighter to check if it was still working and reached it over to Malik, also giving the other a medium sized bottle to hook in his belt. It was some left over gasoline, jut in case.

Casually they started to walk over to the old shack. The hard packed earth, a little damp from a quick shower of rain, concealed their foot steps pretty well.

There were several holes in the large wooden doors, but someone had mad a quick repair with some white paint-splattered planks and half rusted nails.

Altair put his hand against the door and gave it a gentle push, in case there was some kind of lock on the door. The door let out a dry creak, but opened.

The two males quickly sneaked in and silently shut the door behind them.

Well inside, they stood there, letting their eyes adjust to the dim light. Surprisingly, there were no holes in the roof, except for some very small one sin the corners and along the main roof beam, dotting the dusty floor with specks of greyish light.

When Malik's eyes had adjusted, he took a look around. Big crates and bales of hay were placed along the walls.

Some extra beams and broken planks half way up the wall suggested that there once had been a second floor, but it was gone now. Sand, dust and some cans of ale, made out the floor. Looking over to his hunting partner, Malik saw Altair looking at him, waiting for any sign, witch was unusual, since the brunette elder usually did things on his own accord. But then again, this was a Vampire hunt.

Mentally rolling his eyes, Malik made a nodding gesture. _"Let's go."_

As the slowly proceeded towards the other end of the building, they carefully watched for any signs of danger.

But it wasn't until they were at the very end where they found what they were looking for.

Three small forms were tightly huddled together.

Altair met Malik's gaze.

_Fledglings_, he mouthed.

Malik simply nodded then shrugged. _What do we do?_ Just because Malik was a hunter and had important things taken from him, he had at least not lost all of his sympathy. Or maybe it was just that one in the group of four looked like Kadar; black hair half hiding his face.

Altair's eye narrowed slightly. _You know what we'll do._

_They're just teenagers._ Malik replied by slightly raising his eyebrow.

_Not human. _Altair glared back, expression hard. _Not anymore._

They both stiffened as one of the fledglings, a red-head moved in her sleep and slowly opened her eyes.

Quickly she sat up with a gasp, noticing the intruders, then her expression went from shock to anger and with a snarl she threw herself at Malik, the weaker one in her eyes, but was quickly stopped, barely grazing Malik's cheek with her long nails, as Altair's machete made contact with her pale neck, cutting deep, but not all the way trough as the female quickly jumped back with a shriek, pressing a hand at the cut in her neck, her red blood contrasting with her skin.

"Melanie…?" said the black haired boy, voice drowsy with sleep as he sat up, accompanied by a second dark haired boy, dark eyes gleaming in the faint light.

Altair, alerted by the sound, turned around and in one swift move, sliced the boys head off.

"Kim!" the female screamed and lunged herself at Altair, her still healing wound forgotten.

Altair's machete met her halfway, cutting a new wound above the half healed one, all the way trough, and her head and body fell to the floor with a soft thud.

Malik made quick work out of the third boy, who was still in shock and an easy target, even for an amputated man.

Malik leaned against the car side, watching Altair as he cleaned their weapons. The bodies of the fledglings had been lit and their ashes had been scattered.

With rough movements Altair dried his machete one last time before putting it down beside Malik's in the trunk.

"So…" Malik begun, a bit uneasy to be the first one to speak.

"Hm…?" Altair answered a bit absent mindly.

"How do you… "He paused, groaning mentally, because of how stupid he felt."Feel…?" he continued slowly.

"I'm…. quite fine… Why are you asking?" the reply came a bit too quickly.

"How long have you… had nightmares…?" Malik tried to sound neutral.

Altair stiffened his hand stopping in the motion of closing the trunk door. "Excuse me? Nightmares…?"

Malik shrugged. "So you don't have nightmares?" he asked flatly.

"…No…" Altair said evenly.

Malik took a deep breath, trying to push down the anger he had started to feel.  
"Oh really? So, making faces, tossing around and making strange noises in your sleep, isn't counted as having nightmares…?" Malik countered dryly, trying to keep the edge from his voice.

"You watch me sleep…?"

"….No". Malik looked away. "But you did fall asleep on the couch yesterday, if you don't remember that".

"Oh". Altair simply replied.

Malik bit his lip. He hated this. Whenever he tried to show Altair that he cared, if only just a little, Altair would not give him any notice back, just short replies that gave him nothing to go after, not how Altair felt, no, nothing and it made Malik frustrated.

He scoffed. "Well, I'm sorry; I forgot who I was speaking to." Malik said, unable to hide the edge in his voice now and turned around towards the passenger seat.

"Malik…" Altair began slowly.

Malik looked back at Altair. The older wasn't looking at him, but he wore an apologetic expression, witch surprised Malik. "I'm… sorry." Altair said in a low voice.

Not knowing what he should do, Malik just sighed, opened the passenger door, entered the car and closed the door. He tried to close it carefully, but closing a car door gently is quite hard and therefore, Malik had to try again, since the door refused to lock the first time.

Altair took this sign as irritation and he clenched his own fists as he moved towards the driver's seat, opened the door and slammed it shut.

The muscle car's engine greeted them both with a lively roar as ever before returning to its normal comfortable humming, as Altair turned them around and started to drive back the way they came.


	6. Chapter 5

**Alice's author note: I apologize for the long wait; I've just been out of ideas for this chapter and also I've been busy with school stuff I just begun my first year in high school (Sweden). I considered letting Clay write this chapter instead. The chapter is also out of schedule, I've been trying to update every Saturday… **

When they returned to their motel room, they packed up quickly. They usually didn't spend any waste time, and always got out of town quickly. The faster they were on the move, the calmer they both felt. As Altair finished packing his last bag, he threw the car keys over to Malik, which the one armed man caught without any problem with his one hand. He raised an eyebrow at him in question, but Altair just shrugged "I'm too tired to drive" he said simply, heading out of the door as quick as possible.

Malik followed Altair out as fast as he could "are you really sure I should drive, I mean I _do _have _one_ arm…" he said and Altair stopped and looked at him, and Malik didn't like the dark circles that were under the other man's golden eyes. "Malik, I gave you the keys, are you driving or not?" Altair said, he was already by the passenger door, and Malik just shrugged and opened the door to the driver seat.

20 minutes later, half way out of town, Malik turned down the music and threw a glance over at his hunting partner who was looking out the window. "Where are we going next?" Malik asked, and threw Altair a glance in the rear mirror. "Minot, North Dakota. It's just a usual quick burn the bones ghost hunt." He said, voice a bit muffled since he was leaning on his palm, his heavy lidded eyes watching the road speed past them outside. "Malik hummed a quick agreement and kept his eyes on the road and turned the music back up. Soon Altair was silently snoring in his seat.

After driving all the way from the East side of state Minnesota to Minot, North Dakota, with a quick night stay at a motel between, and small talks about the next hunt, they finally arrived. Malik and Altair was standing in the doorway to a young woman named Lucy Stillman, the woman opened her apartment door and her lips made a tight line when Altair and Malik held up their badges. "FBI, we're here to investigate the death of Clay Kaczmarek." the woman, Lucy, looked pale but opened her door further and forced a smile. "O-Of course. Come inside I guess, do you want anything to drink? Coffee?" Malik gave a quick nod, and they stepped inside. The apartment was neat, with a lot of white furniture, the rooms where very bright. A lot of thick books where neatly stacked in bookshelves and a few where lying around on her coffee table, they were all science books.

They sat down by her kitchen table, and she held out a cup for Malik. "So, what do you want to know? About Clay?" She asked, fumbling with her cup and looked over at Altair and Malik. "We just wanted some more… personal info about the guy." Altair looked around in the kitchen, he thought it was slightly creepy that almost everything was white; sometimes he just couldn't believe people's taste. "You worked with him in the same lab, right? We heard you were good friends." He finished his sentence and locked eyes with Lucy that was sitting at the other side from him and Malik at the round table. "Well…" She murmured. "He was a very nice person. We were both new there, so we got along because of that I guess…" She said and looked away quickly. "We went of a few dates and so on… Then he took suicide." Altair and Malik shared a short glance. They were pretty sure that Clay hadn't taken suicide.

In their motel room, Malik was sitting by his laptop, going through Clay's files. "Ok there is definitely something behind Clay Kaczmarek's death." Malik murmured to himself as Altair stepped out of the shower with towel ruffled damp hair and wearing shorts and a too big T-shirt. Malik tried to concentrate on the notes he had made on his laptop and it was extremely hard for him to not look at his partner. _Hunting partner _he silently corrected himself.

Altair lumped down on the bed and dragged a hand through his wet hair and looked at Malik. "How many ghost attacks have there been?" He asked and put his hand down next to him on the bed as Malik looked up. "Three. I suspect Lucy is next. Who should take the night watch?" He said sounding half-amused, which was unusual for the black haired man. "I should." Altair said and yawned as he stretched. "I was thinking of sleeping anyway. I'm tired." The tan man raised an eyebrow at that. "How comes? It isn't late" He looked at the clock on the laptop. "In fact, it's only 8:37 PM." He looked suspicious at his hunting partner; Altair sighed and gestured for Malik to come over to him. With a puzzled look on his face, Malik walked over to the golden eyed man slowly. He stopped in front of him and looked down at Altair sitting down on the bed. Altair grabbed the black haired man's shirt and pulled him down and gave him a chaste kiss on the lips. It lasted for only a few seconds, but the simple kiss was rather passionate and desperate from Altair's end and Malik looked at him in pure shock, his cheeks flushed an obvious red. "What was that about" He almost whispered out as he reached up with his only hand to touch his lips. "I wanted to try it." Altair said and crawled under the blanked of his bed, back turned to Malik. Malik didn't know if Altair was pretending to be asleep or if he actually fell asleep that fast. Either way he had a deep sick feeling in his guts that something wasn't right.


End file.
